Crappie thriving on Lake Conroe

FISHINGCatches are down from '90s, but size of catch is greater

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, May 26, 2005

If an angler were to take the calendar and divide it into segments, listing what the popular fish was at a particular time of the year, May on Lake Conroe would have to be penciled in as crappie.

May rates as the best time to catch a livewell full of crappie. Some of the Conroe crappie are growing to nice size, also.

"We don't have the numbers like we had in the 90s, because they just don't stock them like they used to," said Butch Terpe, longtime crappie fishing guide on the lake.

They refers to the Lake Conroe Marina Association.

"The last time they stocked it was four years ago," said Terpe. "We are still catching fish, but not like in the 90s. The early part of the 90s was phenomenal."

On a recent trip, Terpe and his clients boated 35 fish. Not too bad by any standards

"Black crappie is what the Association almost exclusively stocked, although there was mix of both types of fish," said Lamarr Anderson, a member of the Marina Association.

The white crappie is deep bodied and silvery in color, ranging from silvery-white on the belly to a silvery-green or even dark green on the back. The black crappie is easily confused with the white crappie. However it is deeper bodied than the white, and predominantly silver green in color.

There are no distinct vertical bars on the side of the fish as with the white crappie. Rather there are black blotches.

Jeff Henson, one of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department biologists responsible for lakes in the Lake Conroe part of the state, does confirm the downside of crappie population numbers at the lake.

"The Lake Conroe Lake Marina Association hasn't restocked the program with crappie in a couple of years," said Henson. "That doesn't mean we are not going to have some natural reproduction in the lake. And that is going improve over time as the habitat gets better.

"We have more vegetation in the lake than we have had in a long time. That will actually help the crappie situation some, but it will take a while for it to really show up."

Terpe's crappie sizes are averaging about 12inches.

"We had 15-inch fish this morning," said Terpe referring to crappie caught after a trip earlier last week. "This evening, we had two or three fish that measured 13 inches and quite a few 11- and 12-inch fish. Eleven to 12 inches is normal, probably weighing about one pound for a 12 inch fish."

Henson confirms that some really nice-sized crappie are being caught out of the lake.

"I do know from the anglers that I have talked to, that even though the numbers of crappie are down, they are catching really big fish," said Henson.

"I have talked to a couple of guys that have caught fish measuring 17-18 inches, over two pounds, up close to three pounds. Those are really nice crappie. The fish grow fast. Into their second year, they are past 10 inches.

"It's not a high-density population by any means. As the habitat improves, the crappie population should improve. Conroe doesn't have a lot of shoreline suitable for crappie."

As high as 60 or 70 percent of the shoreline of the lake has been developed into lake-front homes and commercial property.

"That's lots of bulkheads and lake-front development," said Henson. "That will limit how far the population will expand. It will never be a high-density population like what you would have at like Lake Palestine, maybe even a Lake Fork. The lake will always have some crappie and from what we can see, the fish will have a great growth potential."